Master of Health Sciences

The Graduate Practicum serves as the culminating experience in the MHS program, providing students with an opportunity to demonstrate the skills and competencies developed throughout their graduate studies in a real-world context. This practicum is completed during the student’s fifth and final semester.

Each student’s practicum experience will reflect their individual goals and interests and will typically fall into one of the following categories:

• Graduate Internship: A practice-based experience requiring approximately 140 hours under the supervision of a qualified site supervisor. Internships may be established through formal programs or designed by the student in collaboration with a host site. Internships must take place outside the student’s regular working hours.
• Graduate Research: A faculty-mentored scholarly project requiring approximately 140 hours of engagement in the research process. Activities may include conducting literature reviews, developing research protocols, and participating in community-based participatory research.
  Students interested in conducting original research must consult with the Program Director early in the program to discuss feasibility, timelines, and necessary support.
• Graduate Scholarly Practice: A faculty-mentored project involving approximately 140 hours of translating research or tools into practice. This may include applying evidence to support improvements in a community or workplace setting or developing policy recommendations for decision-makers.

Semesters 1–3: Early Planning

Students are encouraged to begin exploring practicum options early in the program by reflecting on their goals, areas of interest, and the competencies they hope to apply or develop. The Program Director is available to provide guidance during this exploratory phase.

Semester 4: Practicum Preparation

Students will enroll in HSC.731: Preparation for Independent Study, a zero-credit, Pass/Fail course. In this course, students will finalize all aspects of their practicum experience with the Program Director, including:

• Learning objectives
• Deliverables
• Practicum setting and placement
• Identification of a site supervisor or faculty mentor
• Completion of required paperwork and/or training

Semester 5: Practicum Completion

Students will enroll in HSC.732: Independent Study, during which they will complete their Graduate Practicum. Each student will be paired with a faculty advisor who will conduct a mid-semester and final evaluation based on submitted deliverables and performance.

In an online environment, you will be learning with technology. Basic computer and technical skills are required to be successful.

• Students should have some general knowledge of the following: browsing, searching, and navigating a web page, file management skills including saving, opening, and placing files inside folders, attaching files, uploading and downloading files.
• Students should be able to run system updates, including antivirus software updates, on their personal device.
• Knowledge about internet bookmarks, or bookmarking a site on the internet browser, is not required but will be extremely helpful and allow one to quickly navigate to the frequently used websites and resources.

We highly encourage you to have your own laptop (PC-Windows or Apple-MacOS) to connect to Wi-Fi and MCPHS resources while you are on campus. If you are planning to purchase a new laptop, please spend time using it so that you are comfortable before you come to campus and start the semester. Please make sure you have administrator rights on your laptop in order to install and update software if needed. Business laptops do not always perform functions necessary to access MCPHS Wi-Fi or access online coursework. A web camera and microphone are required, and students should have access to a printer. We also recommend a cordless mouse if you are more familiar with using a mouse than the track pad on your laptop. You will find it very useful at orientation. Now is the perfect time to get familiar with the computer or laptop that you will be using the most over the next two years.

Software Requirement

Microsoft Office is required and provided to you while you are a student at MCPHS.

• Log into Microsoft 365 with your new MCPHS email and password.
• Download the latest version of Microsoft Word and other Office Apps if you do not already have it installed (Excel, PowerPoint, Skype for Business).
• In the top right corner (after login) there should be a link to download all Microsoft tools.

Browser Requirement

Both Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox should be available on your computer.

• Download Google Chrome
• Download Mozilla Firefox